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California discloses Facebook probe, sues for documents

Californias attorney general disclosed an ongoing probe into Facebooks privacy practices Wednesday, as it sued the company over its repeated refusal to turn over documents and answer questions.

He said he was disclosing it now because his office was making a public court filing to force the company to comply with subpoenas and requests for information.

Facebook is not just continuing to drag its feet in response to the Attorney Generals investigation, it is failing to comply, the lawsuit said.

The California probe, one of many legal and regulatory inquiries into Facebook, began as a response to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and grew into an investigation into whether Facebook misrepresented its privacy practices, deceived users and broke California law.

The court filing said Facebook hasnt given answers on 19 of the attorney generals questions and hasnt given any new documents in response to six document requests.

The filing also said Facebook has refused to search the emails of top executives Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg, as the state requested.

Investigators sought communications among executives on developers access to user data, the relationship between ad spending and access to data and the introduction of new privacy features and privacy-related news stories.

The Massachusetts attorney generals office is set to argue in a state court Thursday why Facebook should be compelled to stop resisting and turn over documents for its investigation.

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